The plant, Sayano-Shushenskaya, which is over 2,000 miles east of Moscow is the biggest in all of Russia.  From AP-

Russian authorities were reportedly warned in 1998 that Siberia’s massive Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant had fallen into serious neglect and was unsafe, more than a decade before this week’s deadly accident.

The death toll rose to 66 Saturday as rescuers continued to drain the dam’s destroyed turbine room and recovered 19 more bodies amid the twisted metal and concrete wreckage from Monday’s unexplained explosion. Nine workers were still missing from the accident, which has highlighted the dangers of Russia‘s creaking infrastructure.

For years, the Kremlin was urged by independent experts and even its own ministries to invest some of its oil-and-gas billions to update Soviet-era infrastructure.

But a lack of expertise combined with government apathy means that not only Russian power plants but dangerous roads, decaying utilities, aging transport fleets and creaking buildings continue to take victims as they fall further into disrepair.

It’s a common theme of life since the collapse of the iron curtain. That vital infrastructure was decaying and in need of repair. That when combined with the natural tendency of bureaucrats world-wide to hoarde money and procrastinate, is not a good mix. Tragedy happens and then the look for  scapegoats begins.   The saying history repeats itself is very true.